Saul's relentless pursuit

David now takes his place fully with the excellent of the earth
(Heb. 11: 38). There the prophet Gad joins him; he is guided in a
direct manner by the plain testimony of God, and soon after he is
joined by the priest also; so that, rejected as he is, all that
belonged to the testimony and the dealings of God gathers around
him. He was the king; the prophet was there; the priest was there
also. The outward forms were elsewhere. Saul, on the contrary, as he
had shewn his contempt for Samuel by pursuing David even into his
presence, without pity as without fear of God, and without remorse,
rids himself of the priests by the hand of a stranger, an Edomite, a
merciless enemy of the people, when the consciences of the latter
would have withheld his hand. It is on this occasion that the priest
is brought by God to David, in like manner as we find the prophet
there after Saul had manifested his contempt of him. Thus a hostile
king, he is a despiser of the prophet, an enemy of the priest of
God.

What a sad history of the gradual but progressive fall of one
who, having the form of good, has not faith in God, and whom God has
forsaken! How sure are the ways of God, whatever appearances may
be!